The Shademen
The Shademen "When those two lads came in off the road, I knew they was trouble, minute they walked in. They had the look of men who expected trouble and meant to find it, if you follow my meaning. They asked after the gaffer renting the room above the stable, and I told them to clear off and not come back, you understand. Well, they showed me the seal they was carrying, and I told 'em to do their business and get out. Then I locked myself in the cellar and waited til the noises stopped. When I went up to check the gaffer's room, he was gone and so was the two gray fellows that came looking for him. Don't know what he did to draw the Shademen, but better him than me, I say." ''- Methon Greeley, proprietor of The Winehollow Inn, on an encounter with The Shademen'' Necromancy and the undead are despised and outlawed in all civilized lands, and most cities publicly try and execute any would-be meddlers with the grave they find. Most are content to let the law deal with such heretics...most, but not all. There had been whispers for decades of a secretive group of vigilantes operating in several kingdoms in Northern Estia, men and women dressed in slate gray cloaks with hard eyes and a strange seal: a lit candle with lilies strewn at its base. The rumors told of people suspected of necromancy being dragged from their homes by night; the innocent returning dazed, bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Those apparently found guilty were never seen again, though all too often a mysterious break-in would be discovered in their homes or shops shortly thereafter that revealed hidden altars or tools for necromantic rituals. Gossips dubbed these rumored vigilantes the Gray Men. Rumor gave way to cold, hard fact in the 7th year of the reign of King Aron Tamm of Ferradar, some three decades before the modern day. The king's cousin, the Lord Colm Sinclair, was found hanged by the neck from the arch of his own manor. The word "GUILTY" had been branded into his chest before death. Laid out at his feet were all the tools of a master necromancer, evidence of his crime: the cousin to the king was a heretic and trafficker in the undead. A scroll nailed to the manor door took responsibility for the murder, as well as making a dire claim: the Lord Sinclair's proximity to the throne showed a lack of either concern for the spread of necromancy or an inability to act among the rulers of Estia. An order, not new but unknown until now, would protect the people from the threat of necromancy, seeking out any who created undead or protected those who did. The verdict for those found guilty would be simple: death, swift and implacable. These vigilantes called themselves the Shademen. King Aron, of course, threw open his coffers to find the men who had murdered his cousin, embarrassing personal predilictions or none. He paid mercenaries, sent out the army, and had hundreds interrogated. None of these so-called Shademen were found, nor had any of the servants or peasants on Lord Sinclair's estates claimed to have seen or heard anything. The Shademen proved as illusive as their name implied. In the three decades since the Shademen have operated with remakable impunity throughout northern Estia and along the western coast. They have uncovered dozens upon dozens of secret cabals, necromancers and depraved supporters of such activities. Now that they have revealed themselves to the world, they have no qualms about letting the world see their handiwork.